Moon in Cancer
Your Moon sign describes your emotional and instinctual energies. Another key component in the makeup of the basic ego/personality, your Moon sign reveals those things you do instinctively, how you are likely to react emotionally, how you give and receive nurturing, as well as the genetic or cellular memories carried within the unconscious mind. It describes your emotional, instinctual, genetic and intuitive makeup.
Your Moon is in the sign of Cancer, and so, strongly placed. With the Moon in its’ own sign, you are likely to be an especially emotional individual, influenced by your own ever changing moods, as well as the emotions of those around you. You are greatly influenced by your own inner cycles and instincts, and can use this sensitivity to great advantage by learning to tune in to the rhythms of your own inner cycles. Moon in Cancer individuals often do better when they can keep to their own schedule, for the ebb and flow of emotions and vibrations has a significant effect on vitality and activity.
As a Cardinal sign, concerned with results and activity, the Moon in Cancer offers the instinctive need to nurture and support other people in all that you do. Cancer is the sign of emotional support; of deep connection to family, home, and togetherness. You are likely to be deeply involved in these areas of life, or deeply reactionary around these fields, as you attempt to change some very potent unconscious programming. The Moon here can be very traditional: family oriented, at times clannish, with an overwhelming concern for all things near and dear to the family home. Or, if the Moon is aspected by other, more independent planets, you will still find yourself deeply affected by these spheres, but involved in a possibly continual struggle to emerge from the familial or genetic soup, so to speak, and become your own person.
You are likely to be very much influenced by the moods and feelings of those around you, and you yourself are likely to be subject to great shifts in mood. The Moon is associated with the principle of flux and change, and it is quite likely that your own emotional state shifts and changes like the phases of the Moon. It is very important for those born with the Moon here learn to take responsibility for how sensitive and emotional they are. Otherwise, you may find yourself constantly tossed around in the sea of life, soaking up other peoples emotional and psychic states with little awareness of what is happening to you and why. You may be unable to discern between your own feelings, and attitudes, and those of the people around you, for you are extremely impressionable, and likely to be instinctively responding to how others around you feel. This is excellent for nurturing and supporting other people, for you have an almost psychic sense of what they need and want, and when! But for your own well being it can become problematic if you are constantly invested in others’ needs, with little appreciation, or even conscious awareness, of what you need yourself! Ask yourself honestly if you know what your needs are. Can you define them? Do they depend upon the relative stance of other people?
You are advised to take good care of your highly sophisticated emotional machinery by making sure you stay centered and grounded, spending time alone in nature, or by the water when you feel the need. Your instincts are actually your best friend, and will serve you very well once you have learnt to decipher between what is yours, and what is not. You must remember how readily inclined you are to soak up the atmosphere of what is going on around you, and so, stay somehow separated when involved in circumstances where it would be best for you to stay detached. This is difficult, but can be achieved through practice, and using mental imagery to affirm that you are protected and contained. Visualizing a calm and protective white and pale blue bubble around you can be very helpful. This being said, Cancer is also a sign of self-protection, and you may also find that you habitually retreat from confronting the outside world, through fears around your over-sensitivity. In this way, you can act like the proverbial crab, and keep yourself from new and stimulating experiences through your tendency to over-protect, staying “safely” inside your preferred shell, imagining a world of harsh experiences that may not even be there. Thus, the tendency toward over protectiveness must be acknowledged and put in its’ place.
This is a very maternal position for The Moon, and you would have strong nurturing capacities. Sometimes, this can be so strong that you may tend to over nurture, or smother, those you care about. Those with the Moon here often have to learn to let their family members live their lives in the way they want and need to, and have to learn to let go of the emotional need to become overly invested in their family members’ lives. On a basic level, you need to give support and nurturing to those around you, without jeopardizing their, or your, independence and ability to go out into the world and achieve results. You can do this best when you are not attempting to over-protect them from what may be, in the end, your own worst fears.
On the down side, this Moon position can also be associated with a tendency to attract persons who are so emotionally needy, or invested in their own emotional state, that the Cancer Moon person finds themselves constantly in a position of taking care of, and supporting, the other whilst secretly resenting the fact that their own need for nurturing and strong support is not being met. This unconsciously becomes the perfect “hook” for the Cancer Moon individual to become absorbed in taking care of the other’s needs, whilst failing to get their own needs met in return. Often, Cancer Moon folk find themselves in codependent situations as they attract needy people, requiring constant support and attention. This is where the Moon gains association with the “Child” state in therapeutic transaction, and the Moon then becomes a symbol of child-like neediness and selfish demands. Someone plays the role of parent and someone plays the role of needy child in the relationship, and this position can even fluctuate, back and forth between the persons involved- at one moment Cancer Moon is busy being the very responsible “parent” type, and then, overwhelmed by the pressure of not having deeper needs met, reverting to the position of the Child, and outraged that there appears to be no-one to take care of them. Obviously this is difficult emotional territory, and must be examined from an individual point of view. Ultimately, the Cancer Moon individual must learn about the sensitivity and subtle instinctive and unconscious patterns inherent in this Moon position, and understand the emotional self without being overwhelmed by its’ demands. This can be achieved by actively seeking to nurture others whilst maintaining appropriate boundaries, by acting out the desire to be close and protective, and by focusing upon allowing deep emotional needs to be met by recognizing one’s need for connectedness, and one’s penetrating sensitivity.
